Jos Verstappen and Sophie Kumpen bred a flawless winning machine.
Max Verstappen will secure his third world championship this weekend. PDO
Max Verstappen will secure this season’s F1 world championship very likely already in Saturday’s sprint race.
At the same time, the Dutchman is made a three-time champion of the sport, i.e. he gets on the same line, for example Niki Lauda and Ayrton Senna with.
Respected F1 journalist Mark Hughes sheds light on Verstappen’s secrets in a recent biography Unstoppable. Hughes paints an accurate picture of how mediocre an F1 driver is If Verstappen decided right after the end of his own career to raise his son to be a perfect race car driver.
However, you have to remember that Max is just as much his mother, by Sophie Kumpen, a child. Kumpen was one of Belgium’s most talented karting stars. He won Jenson Button’s, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trullin – and also the boy’s current boss by Christian Horner on the track several times.
“For a psychiatrist”
In the early stages of his career, the Dutchman was often compared Kimi Räikkönen. The connection has to be understood, because both rose to formula one by a shortcut. The Finn had only driven one season in small formulas after karting, when Peter Sauber invited him to the F1 test.
Räikkönen had just turned 20 years old.
The next driver who repeated the same trick was Verstappen. But he was only 16 at the time.
The two also clashed on the track.
Hughes repeats an example from the 2016 Belgian GP, when Räikkönen had to brake at a speed of well over 300 kilometers per hour, so as not to have caused both of them to go airborne.
– Max has to go to a psychiatrist, Lauda would say after the race.
The Dutchman, only 18 years old, showed even then that he does not bow down to pictures.
– Great, we can go together, he acknowledged the Austrian proposal.
The story continues after the picture
Mother Sophie Kumpen was once a great karting driver. PDO
Räikkönen himself did not understand at all why the jury did not take the situation into consideration.
– It’s fine for me to race hard. But if I have to brake from 340 on a straight just to avoid a crash, something is seriously wrong. One day, a huge accident will arise from that. Maybe he just needs one to clear things up.
“Senseless comment”
The situation did not calm down because the German channel RTL dug up the Dutch grandfather Frans Verstappen.
– First of all, Räikkönen is a crybaby. I have always respected Lauda, but his comment is absurd. Perhaps in that crash (Nürburgring 1976) not only Lauda’s ears were damaged, but also Lauda’s brain, the elder Verstappen teased, respecting family traditions.
The reputation began to accumulate.
– Max is a complete dick, Sebastian Vettel raged later that season in Mexico.
It is, of course, up to everyone’s own judgment. In any case, his numbers are confusing: Verstappen managed to drive 14 F1 races before he got his driver’s license.
Of course, if we only think about genetic factors, Verstappen and his spouse have With Kelly Piquet the opportunity to breed an even more perfect F1 offspring.
The child’s second guardian would be a three-time F1 world champion Nelson Piquet.
– I definitely want children and it’s fine if they want to race. But I’m pretty sure I would handle it differently than my father, Verstappen formulated for De Limburger magazine.